Sunday, March 28, 2010

Queen Anne japanned secretary in miniature

I've been buying and making more pieces for my future dolls' house lately. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had ordered a custom Queen Anne settee from Kris Compas. It arrived yesterday, so I set up a little vignette to photograph, including a red chinoiserie secretary I painted recently.

I'm so pleased with how this secretary turned out. It started as a bog-standard unfinished whitewood piece by Streets Ahead. I primed it, spray painted it red and then used gold and black permanent markers to draw chinoiserie designs on it, looking at a variety of early 18th century japanned antiques for inspiration. You could also japan a piece in black chinoiserie, but I really love red (as anyone who walks into my house knows!